The scent of stale peanuts and piss wafted heavily past the thin and dirty velvet curtains. Claire had never seen drapes in that bad of a condition, but the neglected fabric was hardly her biggest worry. Despite the blasts of warm air that pushed past, she shivered. A sudden smack on her rear made her jump, barely managing to stifle a shriek.

"The asbestos is down kid. The guys want a better show than that flat tire is giving them." Her boss smiled his typically oily grin and brushed his hands over her shoulders. "Don't forget to give em a peek at your blisters part way through. Just a peek though, I don't need any more of my girl's getting arrested." Claire quivered and gave him a nod, refusing to meet his beady black eyes. "Go get em girly."

Before she had much of a chance to reclaim her wits the curtain was pulled back and a raucous roar arose from the all male crowd. She could barely hear the music she was supposed to be dancing to so instead she focused on curling her lips into a smile and placing her feet and hands into the proper positions. The oversized fans she held tickled against her mostly bare skin and did little to cool her, even as she whipped them back and forth in precision choreography. The gadget she wore was beginning to ride up and as she turned her backside to the crowd to shimmy it hitched higher. Her face burned but she forced a wider smile and whipped around, dipping the fan so the crowd could get a hint at her breasts. The cheer deafened her and she pulled the feathers closer to her chin, suddenly noticing one man not reacting. His face was cold and he moved precisely, only looking at the stage when he went to take another step. Claire kept dancing, trying to remember to smile, never taking her face off the dark suited man, unless she turned to show her rear.

Towards the end of her show the man had moved all the way to the front of the crowd and Claire had to squint to see him. Suddenly there was a flurry of movement directly in front of her. She felt something warm on her foot and looked down. There was blood. Blood on her feet and the stage and drops of it hissing as they evaporated off of the lights. The crowd surged away from the source, a man desperately holding his hands against his throat. Claire looked away from the gore and saw the cold faced stranger turn to give her a hard stare, then leave through the side door. The horror of what she had seen sunk in and she dashed through the velvet curtains, throwing down her fans. She pawed through the clothes hanging in the back, failing to find her polka dotted frock. While the other performers and her boss had gone out to see what was causing the mayhem, Claire eventually gave up on trying to find her dress and grabbed a trenchcoat. She also stole a fedora and crammed her small purse into a pocket. Without turning back she ran into the cool night air, vaguely wondering if she had to be afraid of the man she now knew was a murderer.

Ciaran walked down the street hunched over against the wind that had picked up. He took a drag on his cigarette and pulled his fedora over his eyes to shield them. He didn't see the frightened child run out of the alley until she slammed right into him and fell disgracefully to the ground. The look on her face was a mixture of fright and anger as she shied away from his hand that he extended towards her. She looked up at him fully and his eyes grew wide as he recognized Claire. He had lost track of her soon after coming to New York and he was surprised to see her now.

"Claire? It's me Ciaran. Are you alright little one?"

Duke had been stocking Ciaran for the past fe blocks. Duke was really concetrating on his pockets, Ciaran bumped intoa poor women. Duke took the oppritunity, and stole five large from that bum. Duke flattened himself against a wall, and started counting his money, and hiding himself from Ciaran. He had got away with it, but something wasn't right. Ciaran was really concentrating on the female. Duke tried to listen in, but only heard him say "Claire". Duke stepped out of the shadow, and could see the panic on Claires face, and the growing worried look on on Ciaran.

"Whats going on here?"

Duke realized he was still holding the five grand, and quickly stufed it in his pockets.

Claire didn't recognize the man she had crashed into, or the jerk behind him, but something was wrong. She opened her mouth and screamed. It was a shrill, loud sound and she was surprised at how frail it sounded. The surprise on the first man's face was enough to let her know she had some leverage, so she scooted forward and thrust her slippered foot directly into his groin. As he bent and groaned she threw a fist full of muddy rocks into the other man's face and staggered to her feet. She was off and running before either men had recovered.

"Well shit. Now where am I going to go?"

Lily stepped carefully over the cracked sidewalk, clutching her Chanel shopping bags close to her body. In her mind, she was reviewing the subway map and trying to find out how she had managed to get off in the wrong neighborhood. Men wolf-whistled at her from the lines leading to clubs that headlined acts like Cleopatra In All Her Glory! and Cynthia Seashell's Sizzling Show! The redhead's nostrils flared as she picked up her pace. She knew how to find her way back to her apartment from here, but she had to put up with this until then. Suddenly, she saw some strange movement in the corner of her eye. Tensing, she turned her head to see a young woman running out of an alley, breathless. She stared at the woman suspiciously for a moment before recognizing her with a slight start. They had worked together for a few weeks as servers in Uncle John's Gentleman's Club. They had chatted occasionally, usually the usual stuff about how few gentlemen actually frequented the club. What was her name? Karen? Caroline? Claire! That was it. The woman looked disheveled and worried. After glancing around for a moment, Lily sighed and beckoned to Claire, taking several steps closer.

"Claire? Is that you? Are you okay?"

Duke groaned in pain. He wiped his face and eyes to get rid of the mud. It took him a few seconds, but finally it was all gone. He looked around for Ciaran but couldn't see him. Duke started to panic, but he heard the familiar groaning of his friend and saw him lying on the ground holding his join. Knowing a what happened to himself, Duke started to laugh at Ciaran because he got the worse end of the beat down. Duke extended his hand to help up Ciaran.

Boy she has some fight in her! She really got you good!

Duke continued to laugh at Ciaran.

Monty was taking a shortcut home when he heard a soft shriek then a thud and moaning. He made his way around the corner to see two grown men laying on the ground moaning in pain. As he got closer he looked down at the men and grinned at what would have been too easy of prey. Turning his head he noticed a young, panicked woman rushing away from them. He just chuckled for a minute at their misfortune and wandered off curiously after her.

Claire stopped running just long enough to breathlessly babble her predicament, then grabbed Lily's arm.

"Help me get out of here will ya? I don't have much on me, but I got this great pair of earrings in my purse."

She didn't know much about Lily other than that she was a bit of a clothes horse and adored anything sparkly. It wasn't a great deal but hopefully she could ask Lily for a few nights on her couch.

"I don't know who that man is or what he wants, but I definitely don't want him to find me! And on the way out of the club I crashed into two other guys. It's like I'm some chaos magnet all of a sudden!"

Lily looked uncertainly into the alleyway behind Claire, noticing some movement and yelling from some way's back--if one of them had bad intentions, though...she suppressed a shudder and nodded to Claire. She didn't mention that she would do it even without the earrings--she'd have to see how nice they were first. She ushered Claire with her, steering her quickly toward her own apartment. Although she tried to keep an ear out for any footsteps behind them, she was well aware of the many winding paths through which someone could follow a woman at night in New York. Finally reaching her apartment, she fumbled in her purse for her keys, quickly pulling them out and carefully opening the door.

"If you need to stay the night...well, I'm sure I can fit you in somewhere. The couch, I suppose. My mother's living in the guest room, and my fiancé is on the cot there." She dropped her bags next to the coatrack, then tugged her cloche hat off and hung it there. She glanced curiously at Claire in her trenchcoat and fedora. "You can take off your coat and hat, sweetheart. Aren't you hot in that? It's August."

Claire looked around and found she was finally breathing normally since the murder. There was a faint, homey smell of a well cooked meal, and cologne. She didn't know why, but she was suddenly, strangely comforted. She heard Lily's question and blushed to the roots of her hair.

I can take the hat off. She finally managed to choke out. She twisted uncomfortably and reached into the pocket of the stolen coat to take out her purse. Tears of shame prickled her eyes and she had to pretend to dig in the small handbag for the earrings she had promised Lily.

Here. She blurted abruptly. They're my favorite pair, real Chanel earrings from a - uh, guest. I hope you like them. I have a pin that matches but I don't remember where I put it.

Lily grinned appreciatively as she took the earrings into her hand. She turned them in the light, admiring the diamonds and pearls arranged around the center rubies.

"Beautiful, Claire...just beautiful. You don't need to bring the pin." She flashed her former coworker a smile from finishing school. "They're lovely. Thank you." She made a quick trip into her bedroom to slip them into her jewelry box before returning. Claire was standing in the middle of the room, her coat clutched around her like a child's blanket as she turned slowly around, taking in the small apartment. Lily silently removed the girl's hat and hung it on the coat rack. She cleared her throat and motioned toward the couch. "You know...if you'd like, you can sit down." Claire looked slightly startled for a second before nodding and plopping onto the couch, the creak of its springs making Lily cringe inwardly. Smoothing herself over with a winning smile, Lily stepped into the kitchen and began making coffee, peering through the pass through at the shellshocked girl. With raised eyebrows, the redhead carefully arranged a tray with the coffee, two cups, cream, sugar, and a bowl of cigarettes with an accompanying matchbook. She carried it gracefully into the living room, shoving some magazines over on the coffee table to make room for the tray.

"I made some coffee, Claire. If you want to talk about what happened, I'd be happy to hear." Lily carefully poured herself a cup of black coffee and sipped it. Although her next sentence was meant to be sympathetic, she couldn't help but sound slighlty flippant. "But if you don't, that's fine too."

Claire missed the undertone in Lily's voice and began babbling as she lit a cigarette. Her voice quivered slightly and she only paused to take quick drags of her smoke.

I just got a job at the Ipanema and was going to be the big act yanno? Anyhow, I was on stage and while I was dancing the guy worked his way up the crowd. He had a real cold look on his face and I couldn't take my eyes off of him. When he got all the way up front I thought maybe he was going to grab me, I mean, it's happened before. So I tried to stay back a little but that's hard cause the stage is so small and all of a sudden there's blood going everywhere and this guy up front is chokin' and holdin' his neck and the cold lookin' guy was leaving. I don't know why but I couldn't stay, it's like his eyes were telling me something. I just ran backstage and grabbed this coat and my purse and went out the door.

She tapped her cigarette on the edge of the ash tray and picked up one of the cups of coffee.

I feel real fortunate that I ran into you when I did. On the way outta the club I crashed in to 2 other guys. Lord only knows what they wanted.

Lily nodded somberly, stirring her creamless coffee delicately with a spoon. She stared hard at Claire for a moment, her mind calculating. With another ladylike sip of her drink, she gave a slight shrug.

"Well, hopefully they don't know enough about you to follow you. All the same, it would be best for you to stay here for the night. I'll tell Teddy to make sure he wears pajamas tonight." A very faint blush spread across Lily's face, but she cleared her throat and continued. "If you need somewhere to work...well, my company is always looking for new faces. Mostly street-smart entrepeneurs, you know?" Lily smirked slightly as she took another sip of coffee. "If I can fit in, you definitely can."

Claire giggled at the mention of Teddy, still uncomfortable with men. After draining her coffee she looked up at Lily.

"I'd like that Miss Lily. I only got into dancing because I owe some people some money and it was a lot faster to dance than try to do uh, other things. I mostly got the thugs I owe paid off, so if you don't mind someone who has a little collateral over their heads, I'd sure like to look into what you're offering."

"Not at all." Lily smiled and took a long drink of her coffee before setting it down carefully on the tray. "You'll be able to make back your money many times over, Claire." She rose to her feet and made her way to a small hall closet, tugging out a spare quilt. She brought it to the couch and dropped it into the spot that she had just been sitting in. "If you need a shower, it's in the hall."